


Between Acts

by betweenacts



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-28
Updated: 2012-05-28
Packaged: 2017-11-06 04:16:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/414597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betweenacts/pseuds/betweenacts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some jobs get under your skin and make you change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between Acts

They both got the script at the same time; their agents wanted to make sure they would audition together.   
“So, what’s the catch?” Catherine asked her long-time agent.   
“You will see when the day comes.” That’s all he said.   
  
They sat side by side across from Josie Rourke and a skinny little girl that apparently was the play’s author.   
“Ok, I know this is unusual, but in the script there is a moment where the characters are supposed to talk about the actors playing them. As if someone had mistaken them on the street one day and…” the writer started.    
“What are the characters reactions to being mistaken as us?” David asks making little notes on his head.    
“Offended.” She answered simply. “And you are also supposed to add a little self-critic.”   
Catherine opened the script on the said part and read the instructions, it did say that. A lot of actors, great famous actors, had come to try out for these parts but none had said yes to it, though the script was good. Now she knew why.    
Catherine looked into David’s eyes knowing she would accept it if he did.    
“I think we are losing it.” He read on the paper, “The other day a man stopped me on the street and asked ‘Aren’t you David Tennant?’ Can you believe it? He basically called me The Ugly Nerd!” he grimaced.   
“That does not beat my best story, oh no. I was at a shop, and the cashier told me ‘You look just like that famous lady…’ and I said ‘Erin Archer?’ and she went on ‘No, not her… Oh, I know! You look just like Catherine Tate!’ I mean… I know I shouldn’t be offended, but she is not even that funny or original.” They both stayed in silence for a few seconds like it was told for them to do and then fell into the hysterical laughter they should fall into.   
The writer smiled and so did Josie, they finally had their actors.   
  
Rehearsals were fun times, though it was a hard plot that made them cringe in some parts. It was about two people in love with no intentions of changing their lives to live the so-called love. It was harsh. And there was no one else but them in the cast.   
“You know, if you want you can change what you say every night.” The writer told them with a glimmer of pride in her eyes, and a shy smile of someone who was seeing something she wrote come to life for the first time.   
“Is that a challenge?” David asked raising one of his eyebrows.   
“Oh, it’s on!” Catherine answered beaming at him.   
  
On opening night they said the changing-lines in the same way they did on the audition, in some sort of reverence to how they got there. But those lines changed every night, they made people laugh. Like when David made fun of his weight, and Catherine made fun of how clueless she could be.   
But the jokes started to become serious as the days passed by and the story started weighting down on them. They still tried to crack a joke, however, one day David seemed to understand what the play really meant with that scene; it was a place to confess your sins, show the audience those stories happen, their idols are not perfect. There are things broken inside those you admire that will never be fixed.   
When he understood, David said “Can you believe it? Everyone knows he is a fucking bastard!” some people gasped in the audience. But Catherine just stared into his eyes, her eyes seeing right through his soul, she knew he had cheated on Georgia a couple of times and here he was confessing without really telling the truth. That night the laughter was hysterical in the way it should, with a twinge of a bitter taste in the end.   
  
Catherine had her own epiphany only weeks later. It had been a long time since a play revealed itself to her every day a little more, like it was making itself comfortable before really showing what it meant. She was nervous that night, trying to practice some clever line which would have everyone in stiches. When the time came she said “I mean… I know I shouldn’t be offended, but everyone knows half of the time she is high on anti-depressives!” she had to hold herself up so her hand would not fly to her mouth. The character had made a home inside her and she was telling the world who Catherine Ford was.   
  
On the day she used her medication as a self-critic, they both stayed in silence hours after the play had ended.   
“Do you think we made a mistake in saying yes?” she whispered in a rushed secretive tone.   
“I think the others committed the real mistake by saying no. This is therapeutic.”    
“That girl is too weird, who would make the actors say bad things about themselves?” she said in a serious voice.   
“An actress. That’s the kind of person who would write something to make another actor leave their comfort zone…”   
“Someone who knows how it feels to…” she checked the time on her watch. “I need to go. See you tomorrow.”   
She left and he stayed. He thought about leaving Georgia, some works make you rethink your life.   
  
He had given up on changing the line and stuck with his ‘bastard’ version as the official one. She had realized the true meaning of the scene later than he did, so she kept changing it every night.   
The tabloids were talking about the end of his marriage and her many failed relationships. She got on the stage with her line ready, she would confess, she would tell the audience she had tried to kill herself last summer… However, the scene came and as she shared this moment with him something else started leaving her lips. “I mean… I know I shouldn’t be offended, but I just realized, isn’t it funny that they thought you were David Tennant? I’ve always heard she’s been in love with him for years!”    
The laugh that followed was hysterical, it was desperate, nervous, the laugh of someone who said too much.   
The final scene of the play was a dance, a simple dance; the main characters didn’t kiss during the play, not even once, not even during or after the dance. There was just one touch of hands before each one went on their way home.   
That night, when Oliver bowed asking Erin to dance with him with the no-music playing, the air was different. Before letting go, in the end of the dance, Oliver kissed Erin sealing the pain of the night with one more regret for the characters.   
But to Catherine and David that was just the beginning.


End file.
